Among the largest sepulchral chapels attached to any English church, this cruciform mausoleum houses a remarkable sequence of 17 sculpted and effigied monuments, spanning nearly two and a half centuries (1614-1859), to the De Grey family of Wrest Park.
History
History
History tells stories about people, places and things to help explain to young people of any age why the world is as it is as they grow up and begin to question it.
Schools will choose different periods and settings and topics to cove during different Key Stages, but all of them are pretty well guaranteed to be rooted in actual places that can be visited, explored and enjoyed.
It has been a curious fact that for many years primary classes have studied the Roman, Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, while secondary school syllabuses have been more engaged in post-medieval periods. For a while secondary courses involved a great deal of ‘topic work’. While this discipline still exists, the recent examination syllabuses have returned to an emphasis on historical periods and links.
But all periods and topics provide fantastic opportunities for school visits. We are so lucky that so many general and specialist museums and visitor centres exist in the UK. The problem is not a shortage of possibilities but how one sifts through the available opportunities to make choices.
The Historical Association website carries information about course, conferences, study tours, and the Association has published ‘The Historian’ magazine for many years. Handsam is also happy to help, please contact us on 03332 070737 or email info@schooltripsadvisor.org.uk.
Most venues will have teaching materials and activities geared to students’ different ages and aptitudes whether at primary or secondary level. All of them will set out to develop students’ ability to understand, analyse and evaluate key features and characteristics of historical periods and events studied.
Some venues will be easy to identify because they fit neatly with the period and topic being studied but others may offer new possibilities, not least to the teachers themselves. Teachers need and deserve their own stimulation.
Over the next four years there will be an upsurge in visits to the First World War battlefields. Because of this there will be an increase in companies offering visits and requirement for battlefield guides, especially in northern France and Belgium. There are bound to be discrepancies in guides’ knowledge and experience. Close research into the credentials of the company you are contracting with, and the company’s guarantees about guides, will ensure that your group will not be disappointed.
Main organisations:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Inclusion: NASEN
Thought of visiting?
Roman Vindolanda and Roman Army Museum at Hadrian’s Wall
Viriconium, Wroxeter, Shropshire
The Jorvik Viking Centre, York
Offa’s Dyke Trail and Chirk Castle
The National Trust for Scotland
Clan Donald Visitor Centre, Isle of Skye
Bosworth Battlefield Visitor Centre
Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin
Exeter Cathedral Education Centre
The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
The Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth
East Anglia Railway Museum, Colchester
The National Tramway Museum, Matlock
Venues for this Curriculum
Built between1283 and 1295 by an army of nearly a thousand skilled craftsmen and labourers, Harlech is part of the World Heritage Site of Castles and Town Walls of Edward I. We also provide Medieaval Treasure Chest handling and self-led activity packs on Castles, English and Science, Technology and Mathematics.
The Hatfield Earthworks are made primarily of a large, irregular-shaped henge enclosure, surrounded by a ditch and bordered in part by the River Avon. Within this lies a second Neolithic Henge and a monumental mound.
Welcome to Bring Yer Wellies! We provide fun and engaging outdoor learning for school trips and children’s parties in a unique, hands-on outdoor countryside environment.
We provide a whole range of educational visits and childrens’ parties in a unique outdoor countryside location in Hoghton, Lancashire.
One of the largest, most impressive and most accessible Neolithic chambered tombs in Britain. Built in around 3650 BC, it was used for a short time as a burial chamber, nearly 50 people being buried here before the chambers were blocked. Part of the Avebury World Heritage Site.
Begun in about 3000 BC, the Sanctuary was originally a complex circular arrangement of timber posts, which were later replaced by stones. These components are now indicated by concrete slabs.
Torrington 1646 is an all weather educational facility for schools that makes history fun! Travel back to the 17th Century with our costumed characters and experience life in Torrington during the English Civil War. See how people lived, loved, laughed and lied their way through the English Civil War.
An 'avenue', originally of around 100 pairs of prehistoric standing stones, raised to form a winding 1 1⁄2 mile ritual link between the pre-existing monuments of Avebury and The Sanctuary. Part of the Avebury World Heritage Site.
With a striking triple-towered great gatehouse built atop a rock, Denbigh is a fine example of an thirteenth century castle with remarkable surviving town walls.
We also provide Medieaval Treasure Chest handling and self-led activity packs on Castles, English and Science, Technology and Mathematics. Replica artefact handling collection with KS2 History and English self-led resource.
The Museum of English Rural Life houses the most comprehensive national collection of objects, books and archives relating to the history of food, farming and the countryside.
The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum offers fun and inspiring primary visits and outreach sessions covering literacy, history and more. Meet Kitty and Lucy the family servants, find out how books are made with Michael Johnson, handle original objects, dress up as a Georgian, join Hodge's Alphabet Hunt and make your own Dictionary!
Superb early 18th-century mansion with unique family history
Discover the story of a family who became caught up in the extraordinary events of the English Civil War. Their history is bound up in this beautiful house, which is still the home of the Carew Pole family today.
These two five-storey 16th and 17th century merchants' houses which now also house English Heritage's regional office - are fine examples of Jacobean domestic architecture.
The Surtees house is best known as the scene of the elopement of Bessie with John Scott, later Lord Chancellor of England. An exhibition illustrating the history of the houses is on the first floor.
Chiswick House is among the most glorious examples of 18th century British architecture and makes a fascinating day out in West London. The third Earl of Burlington, who designed this noble Roman-style Palladian villa, drew inspiration from his ‘grand tours’ of Italy.
This charming cottage-like 17th century conduit house, with vaulted stone-slab roof, once supplied water to Bolsover Castle.
The Cundy House was built in the early 17th century to provide a water supply for Bolsover Castle, about 300 metres (328 yards) away.
The name ‘Cundy’ is a corruption of the French word ‘conduit’, or water pipe.
Milford House Museum is located at 57 William Street. Housing an old master paintings, beautiful furnishing and family possessions. Discover the extraordinary world of Milford House and the people who lived there. Across the street is the William McCrum Park where football's penalty kick was invented.
Mount Edgcumbe House is the former home of the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe. Set in Grade I Cornish Gardens within 865 acres Country Park on the Rame Peninsula, South East Cornwall.
The 17th-century Queen’s House represents a turning point in English architecture. It was originally the home of Charles I's queen, Henrietta Maria. It now showcases the Museum's outstanding fine art collection and provides a unique and beautiful environment for its exhibitions.
Schools at Royal Museums Greenwich
Totnes Museum is contained within an authentic Elizabethan Merchant's House, built around 1575 for the Kelland family. The house retains many features dating back to the Elizabethan period and has been painstakingly restored.
Collections, dating from 5000BC, relate to the social, cultural, economic history of Totnes, include a room dedicated to the life and work of Charles Babbage.
The remains of the bath house of Ravenglass Roman fort, established in AD 130, are among the tallest Roman structures surviving innorthern Britain: the walls stand almost 4 metres (13 feet) high.
Bursting with history, art from all ages and a first hand glimpse into life on a working farmyard, plus so much more. A school trip to Chatsworth makes for a rewarding day of learning for pupils and teachers alike.
There's so much to see and do
Dr Johnson's House is a charming 300-year-old townhouse, nestled amongst a maze of courts and alleys in the historic City of London. Samuel Johnson, the writer and wit, lived and worked here in the middle of the eighteenth century, compiling his great Dictionary of the English Language in the Garret.
In the heart of London is Benjamin Franklin House, the world's only remaining Franklin home. For nearly sixteen years between 1757 and 1775, Dr Benjamin Franklin – scientist, diplomat, philosopher, inventor, Founding Father of the United States and more – lived behind its doors.
A must for kids studying local history, a visit will let you help out with their schoolwork and spend some quality time together. Special quizzes and hands-on trails take them through Bunyan's amazing life at their own pace.
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